On Jan. 6, 2021, a sea of confederate banners, Make America Swell Again hats, and flags embossed with the TRUMP 2020 logo punched through the glass of the U.S. Capitol and attempted a insurrection of the government. Someone reenacted George Floyd's death on the Capitol steps and another person flew the confederate flag in the hall of the Capitol. In the chaos that ensued, multiple people were killed in lieu of showing support for the soon-to-be outgoing President Donald Trump, who maintains that the election was rigged since he lost.
A month prior, on December. xi, 2020, rapper Lil Wayne, whose real proper name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., pleaded guilty to felony gun charges and was scheduled to be sentenced to 10 years in prison. According to a Department of Justice printing release, the charge stems from a December 2019 abort, when Florida police force searched his private plane and found a gilded-plated Remington 1911, .45-quotient handgun loaded with six rounds of ammunition. And since Carter had already been bedevilled of a felony, his possession of the gun and armament was illegal. Not to mention he was in possession of cocaine, ecstasy, and oxycodone. He was scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 28, but a pardon from former-President Trump immune him to avert jail time.
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Wayne, nevertheless, may have foreshadowed dodging a bullet for his actions but two months before.
In October, the 38-year-old posted a picture with the president, grinning. Not even caring that he was just being used for a photograph-op, Lil Wayne tweeted the image with a caption that suggested for people to vote for the president's re-election. After Trump'due south four years of xenophobia and racist policies that have set the country back farther than any president has done in contempo history, Lil Wayne's public support of Trump was met with swift backlash levied at him. They both lost.
To Black America, Wayne was at his lowest indicate — especially when it was hinted at the reason for this endorsement was to receive clemency for the aforementioned gun accuse. And it worked. In the final hours of Trump's presidency, he pardoned or commuted 143 sentences, including Wayne'due south.
Fans were, and yet are, disgusted at Wayne'southward antics. "I'chiliad surprised, but as usual, disappointed by the actions of Black male celebrity privilege," says longtime fan Tarahgee Morris. For Bárbara Polanco, this has, presumably, ended her support of him. "I can't respect and separate the person from the creative person in his case subsequently making such a tone-deaf decision in a yr like 2020," she says.
To say that Lil Wayne supported this homo is indicative of only how far he's fallen over the course of his mythical hip-hop career. He peaked when he could sell a million records in a calendar week back in 2008, when his claim of being hip-hop'south "All-time Rapper Live" had merit. Now, he'south a shade of his former self, forever haunted by a fall that has to do more with his politics and worldview than a musical reject — though at that place's shades of that, too.
Credit: Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Lil Wayne was the kid at the microphone who was rap's prodigal son. He started rapping at only eight years one-time and didn't try to exist cute — he just was. In 1991, he met Birdman and went on to record some freestyle raps over his answering machine. This led to Birdman mentoring the young kid, who he'd later refer to as his begetter, and the beginnings of what would be a lengthy, and legendary career.
But before that, a suicide endeavour would come up first.
On Nov. 11, 1994, at simply 12 years onetime, Lil Wayne shot himself in the chest with a 9mm handgun — initially, he claimed that it was an accidental shooting. He'd barely missed his heart. His reason for doing this was because his mother wanted him to give up rapping already and relinquish those connections that he established, but the universe had other plans for him. An off-duty police officer named Robert Hoobler — Lil Wayne refers to him as "Uncle Bob" — plant him and insisted that he be taken to the infirmary in a police car. Having been saved past a police officer, Lil Wayne gained a new respect and fascination with the institution that has divers his very grapheme and then far.
With a new lease on life, Lil Wayne took things full speed. He joined the Hot Boys, with Juvenile, B.G. and Turk, and became a national miracle through their No. i album Guerrilla Warfare. Merely it wasn't until "Back That Azz Upwardly," Juvenile'south infamous trip the light fantastic anthem, that had its video come out in 1999, that Lil Wayne truly became an clue of the public figure that he could be.
Tha Block Is Hot dropped in 1999 and kicked off Lil Wayne'due south solo era. Through visceral scene-setting of smoking guns after drive-past shootings and drastically detailing his stresses on "Fuck Tha World," Lil Wayne hitting the hearts of hip-hop fans everywhere, from the slums to the suburbs, who identified with his bulletin and felt his pain. He became a spokesperson for the ghetto and his punchlines and brilliant recollection of the street made him on top of his game.
After the success of Tha Block Is Hot, Lil Wayne'southward solo career kicked into high gear. He released Tha Carter, Tha Carter II and Like Father, Like Son, with Birdman, from 2004 to 2006 and appeared on countless features for charting singles, solidifying himself as an artist who could contend with hip-hop's changing tide. Instead of taking his foot off the gear, he would go on to release ii of his well-nigh legendary mixtapes of his many that accept defined his career: Dedication 2 and Da Drought 3. Between the two, his style became tighter and his punchlines more succinct.
On Dedication 2, Lil Wayne called out President George W. Bush for his irksome response to send aid to Hurricane Katrina victims in Wayne's home state of Louisiana, leading the world to believe that the rapper was more than politically-inclined than many thought to believe. This, along with the resulting success of his mixtapes led to his next album, Tha Carter III, selling over a meg copies in the first week and Lil Wayne'due south claims of beingness the "Best Rapper Alive" finally began to brand sense.
That's widely considered one of his highest points considering though he has appeared on countless archetype singles in the time sense, released a number of mixtapes besides as two more Tha Carter albums and five other LPs, he has yet to reclaim that level of prominence and commercial appeal.
While one could attribute information technology to the quality of his music declining equally rap moves abroad from the punchline heavy mode that he used to frequent, it also comes from him becoming the opposite of what the globe believed him to be politically and thematically. His lengthy arrest tape could also exist to blame.
Credit: Ray Tamarra/Getty Images
In 2007, Lil Wayne went through multiple arrests: first, being arrested in New York Urban center afterward performing at the Buoy Theater where he was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and marijuana. Afterward, he was arrested for felony fugitive charges in Georgia before the charges were afterwards dropped. In 2008, he was arrested after Arizona agents recovered cocaine, ecstasy and cash, and got charged with iv felonies, of which he would plead guilty to in 2010 and get 36 months of probation. He received a i-year judgement after pleading guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon in 2009, served from March eight of the following year to Nov. 4, 2010.
These spotty periods of unrest and tension led to Wayne's proteges, Nicki Minaj and Drake, to brainstorm to presume the position at the top of the rap spectrum that he one time occupied. Lil Wayne withdrew further from the rap spectrum and as he worked to endeavor and come back with the release of albums like Tha Carter Iv and I Am Not a Human Ii in 2011 and 2013 respectively, the truthful telescopic of his downfall would be revealed — and information technology tied right back to a conventionalities system established years ago.
During an interview with Nightline in 2016, Lil Wayne was asked about Black Lives Thing, the arrangement that protects to show the importance of black lives through protests and calls for alter. His response was the first pocketknife wound into his career and the blood began to pour.
"That just sounds weird," he said. "I don't know, that you put a name on such a — that'due south what it was. Information technology's not a name; it's not whatsoever, whatever. Information technology'southward somebody got shot past a policeman for a fucked up reason. I am a immature, Black, rich motherfucker. If that don't let you know that America sympathize Black motherfucker matter these days, I don't what it is. I don't know what you mean. Now, don't come at me with that. My life matters, particularly to my bitches."
Lil Wayne's response, aside from being grossly ignorant, was telling considering it removed the law officer from assuming responsibility for his actions. Given that his life was saved by a police officeholder equally a kid, it explains why he's never spoken out against any of the injustices to Black people that take occurred over the last decade.
New York-based therapist Jennifer Hall, who specializes in treating women and has worked in the past as a medical social worker, explains over email that Lil Wayne'south human relationship with the police is "complicated and nuanced" like it is with a big percent of Blackness Americans. "Growing up in a high poverty neighborhood during the height of the war on drugs and mass incarceration, I'm sure he witnessed the ways that people who looked like him were treated by law enforcement," she says. "I mean, Republic of angola prison plantation in Louisiana is legendary. He chosen the police in his neighborhood 'jump out boys' because of their willingness to indiscriminately brutalize black men in his neighborhood.
"Yet, a police officeholder went above and across to save him," she continues. "He is grateful to the officer and uses that experience to remind himself and others not to generalize police force enforcement, because he knows they have the power to save lives."
Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
This shining epitome of Lil Wayne becoming another Black celebrity looking to entice blackness people to vote for Trump is what at present defines Lil Wayne's legacy more any mixtape or album honour or punchline-packed poesy that graced MySpace pages all over. Information technology's like learning that Santa couldn't be real and so finding out, in fact, he doesn't exist when there'due south zilch left at the bottom of your Christmas tree. Lil Wayne'southward voice, commonly out of the public's ear, has repeatedly made it clear that he'south out of impact with the people that he raps to.
In the age of transparency betwixt musicians and their fanbases, Lil Wayne has finally been exposed. This aspect of the rapper had never been truly unearthed because it'due south not something that he addressed in prior interviews from before 2016 — more often than not focusing on his music, his money, and his career. But with rappers becoming the biggest artists in the world who often double as public figures, the fact that he'due south still one of rap's most prolific recorders doesn't matter. It's his politics that are front and center.
In that location hasn't been an artist with as huge of a fall — tied to their beliefs — every bit Lil Wayne. While his legacy isn't chosen into question due to the accolades, the veracity of his claims and early lyricism can exist called into question. But without the true answer to when he became so transformed with his behavior, listening to him creates a lot of speculation that takes away from the music. How much of "Georgia Bush" was authentic and what was performative? It seems like the idea of Lil Wayne and what he represents has go better than the real thing.
To encounter our running list of the top 100 greatest guitarists of all fourth dimension, click here.
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